---
title: "Processes"
description: "A process in BRAIAN by AETERION is a versioned definition of a business procedure. It declares a trigger, an ordered set of steps, the agents responsible for those steps, the systems it may touch, and the outcome that counts as success. Every execution of a definition is called a run."
url: "https://aeterion.tech/en/docs/core-concepts/processes"
locale: "en"
publisher: "AETERION SA"
---
# Processes

> A process in BRAIAN by ÆTERION is a versioned definition of a business procedure. It declares a trigger, an ordered set of steps, the agents responsible for those steps, the systems it may touch, and the outcome that counts as success. Every execution of a definition is called a run.

Source: https://aeterion.tech/en/docs/core-concepts/processes
Last updated: 2026-09-20

## Anatomy of a process definition

Definitions are declarative. They describe the work and its constraints; orchestration decides how to execute it, when to retry and when to stop.

`invoice-approval.yaml`
```yaml
name: invoice-approval
owner: finance-operations
trigger:
  type: event
  source: sap.invoice.received
steps:
  - id: extract
    agent: document-agent
    output: invoice_fields
  - id: match
    agent: finance-agent
    tools: [sap.purchase_orders.read]
  - id: approve
    agent: finance-agent
    policy: finance.payment-threshold
outcome:
  success: invoice_posted
  sla_minutes: 30
```

## Versions and runs

Publishing a definition creates an immutable version. Runs are bound to the version that was active when they started, so a change to the definition never rewrites the history of work already completed.

- Every run stores its definition version, environment and trigger payload.
- Retries reuse the same version; they do not pick up an edit made mid-run.
- Rolling back means activating an earlier version, which is itself an audited change.

## Outcomes and service levels

A process declares what success means. Evaluation uses that declaration to score runs, and observability uses the service level to flag runs that are late, stalled or repeatedly escalated.

> **A process without a declared outcome cannot be evaluated** — Definitions without an outcome block run, but they are excluded from evaluation scoring and from regression checks between versions.